Members of Congress Again Ask Bush: Are You Opposed to Birth Control?

Led by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), 38 members of Congress sent a letter to President Bush yesterday, asking him whether he is for or against birth control. This is the fourth letter sent to President Bush, after White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan refused to answer this question posed by reporters in press briefings.

"I thought that in the 21st century, answering a straightforward question about birth control would be easy, but apparently it isn't for the Leader of the Free World," said Maloney. "I was hoping that the president would be able to answer whether or not he supports birth control in less than 165 days. Since we received no response, we have to ask again.”

McLellan was first asked whether that president was opposed to contraception at a May 26 press briefing. McClellan replied “… I think the President's views are very clear when it comes to building a culture of life … and if you want to ask those questions, that's fine. I'm just not going to dignify them with a response.”

Ninety-five percent of American women will use birth control at some time in their lives, and a shift in the balance on the Supreme Court could alter the Court’s position on the right to privacy, on which the rights to abortion and birth control rest. The right to privacy is also fundamental in ensuring women’s equality. “Doctrines of privacy and equality for women are simply not separable: Eroding one imperils the other,” writes Ellen Chesler in Ms. magazine’s Urgent Report on the Looming Fight Over the Supreme Court. “And all this rests on the shoulders of just one new justice.”

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Emphasizing her party's commitment to maintaining Taiwan's independence from China, Tsai won over young voters eager to usher in a political changing of the guard following some 70 years of dominance by the pro-Chinese unification party, the Kuomintang (KMT), chaired by presidential opponent Eric Chu. . . .